Standing Up for Higher Education

Since the ’80s politicians have slashed funding for higher education.
Desperate to keep the doors open, universities hired high-priced executive administrators who turned college into big business. They hiked tuition, cut tenure track positions and decreased faculty pay, all while pocketing handsome paychecks. The result is a rigged system where only a select few get access to a quality education and too many educators live in poverty.

That’s why faculty, graduate student workers, students and families are coming together for change. We’re demanding that in America everyone has access to education and that all educators receive fair pay and stable work.

Join The Movement

A National Movement to Change Higher Education

See all of our victories!

What we have to say

As a PhD student whose mother is an adjunct faculty member, the flawed higher ed funding system directly affects my family. I joined the movement to transform higher education so that other Latinxs and people of color working at colleges and universities...

As a PhD student whose mother is an adjunct faculty member, the flawed higher ed funding system directly affects my family. I joined the movement to transform higher education so that other Latinxs and people of color working at colleges and universities have a voice in the decisions that affect our daily lives.

Stephan Lefebvre, Economics PhD Student, American University

In the Boston area, as around the country, the salaries and working conditions of adjunct faculty and graduate employees had been declining for many years until we organized on campuses around the city. Now that we have union bargaining units around the...

In the Boston area, as around the country, the salaries and working conditions of adjunct faculty and graduate employees had been declining for many years until we organized on campuses around the city. Now that we have union bargaining units around the area, we have regained workers’ influence in the academic labor market. We have even made inroads into the state legislative process in order to approach equal pay for equal work for adjuncts. There truly is power in a union!

Andy Klatt, Faculty Member, Tufts University

I’m so proud that two of my three children are college graduates. But with tuition skyrocketing, I see how they worry and struggle to pay back their loans. That’s why I’m proud to be part of the movement to change higher...

I’m so proud that two of my three children are college graduates. But with tuition skyrocketing, I see how they worry and struggle to pay back their loans. That’s why I’m proud to be part of the movement to change higher education.

photo: AP/Marcio Jose Sanchez

Nancy Harvey, Family Child Care Provider, SEIU Local 521 Member

I know that when my professors had to worry about paying their bills, it was harder for them to give students the time and resources we needed. Our learning conditions are better when our educators are set up to succeed.

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I know that when my professors had to worry about paying their bills, it was harder for them to give students the time and resources we needed. Our learning conditions are better when our educators are set up to succeed.

Sapphira Lurie, Alum, Fordham University

They tell fast food and Walmart workers to get an education if they want a better job, yet as an adjunct professor I make less than $15 an hour. We need to fundamentally change the way our economy and higher education work and we can only do that by...

They tell fast food and Walmart workers to get an education if they want a better job, yet as an adjunct professor I make less than $15 an hour. We need to fundamentally change the way our economy and higher education work and we can only do that by standing together.

Fed up with low pay and a lack of stability that hurts their ability to teach, faculty at Elon University filed for their union. Unfortunately, Elon's president is denying adjunct faculty the right to organize and trying to stall to keep all faculty from voting for their union.

“I’m tired of seeing my students and coworkers skip meals and doctors’ appointments. We can’t afford to sit quietly and just hope things change.” - Angela Edwards-Luckett, an adjunct professor at St. Petersburg College ... See MoreSee Less

The push for adjunct professors in Florida to collectively organize accelerated this week, with instructors at seven more state colleges filing to unionize. If the instructors at all of these schools ultimately decide to vote to unionize, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Florida Publ...

Protesting poverty pay and the University’s refusal to reach a fair contract, the grad workers of Loyola University Chicago held a grade-in and potluck to show the impact of poor working conditions on their lives! Like this to show your support! #BargainLUC ... See MoreSee Less